Monday, January 30, 2012

31.4% – Again, as I wrote the other day, this is now essentially a Democrat or Democrat leaning state. It’s not deep blue, but rather a purpley blue, but definitely blue. And it is a state that has elected just two GOP governors since Reconstruction. The last one, Jim Martin, left office in 1993.

That, too, will give McCrory an uphill climb. Here’s what I wrote on that Friday:

It is common knowledge in the campaign world that GOP registration in a state or district has to be at 35 percent for the GOP to have a serious chance at winning. It’s at 31.4 percent. Unaffiliated registration is 24.5 percent. Democrat registration is 43.8 percent. To win, McCrory or another Republican must turn out the GOP, not too hard in an presidential year, and capture almost all of the the unaffiliated vote, or some of the unafilliated vote and some of the Democrat vote, not an easy thing to do.

McCrory, or any other Republican, could really struggle against someone who doesn’t start the race with high, built-in negatives like Perdue had.

Given that … Perdue’s announcement that she won’t run again was a huge blow to the state GOP — and to McCrory.

Click the link for more of her analysis. I myself am wondering if Perdue was encouraged to step aside, and will get a patronage job - - Ambassador to Somewhere - - in a second Obama administration?

I could see where it could be come a class divide issue; while the Armani-wearing yuppie might be welcome in the working-class BBQ joint found anywhere in the rural South, would a working man - - a farmer, say - - in clean bib overalls with a red bandanna sticking out of his pocket be welcome in the Yuppie Cue restaurant, or would he be turned away for not conforming to the dress code?

I notice in the stats that most of my traffic comes from Google searches, specifically image searches, Giant Squid and Kim Kardashian's Tits being the top 2 searches.

Her tits? Damn, she has nice tits, but Kim Kardashian is all about the ass, guys. Just like J.-Lo or Nina Hartley.

In any event, thanks for continuing to read this drivel. I know I'd get more readers - - well, visitors - - by posting cheesecake or even NSFW pics of chicks, but I'm not in a competition, here. No trophy waiting across a finish line. It's free ice cream. Enjoy.

The Carpenters, Superstar. What a voice Karen Carpenter had. The "superstar" mentioned in the song, by the way, is Eric Clapton. I like the oboe and horn arrangements in this song, too. It's been fashionable to snark on The Carpenters for decades now, but they had some great songs, and Karen was a hell of a singer. If you don't agree...well, fuck you, everyone that looks like you, and the horse you rode in onde gustibus non est disputandum, as the Romans said.

Well, every day here is cooking day, but today being payday it's a little more sophisticated than the usual 2 baked chicken thighs. I bought a beef roast, and it's currently in the oven, should be ready to eat by lunchtime. I also bought the makings for crab dip, which I have an insane craving for right now. I'll provide photos if the food comes out halfway decent.

The master modeller, from Brandford, Dorset, has created every ship built in the Royal Navy since 1945, as well as 60 other ships from the US navy and other impressive floating fortresses from 18 other nations. One of the largest ships in his collection is the famous USS Nimitz, the largest aircraft carrier in the world.

Throghout his career as a ship model builder, Phillip Waren created over 400 individual ships, as well as 1,200 airplane models that make his aircraft carriers look more real. The average ship in his collection is made using around 1,500 matchsticks and takes about a month to complete, but for his larger creations he used over 5,000 matchsticks and 200 wooden boxes. These took him about a year to complete. All in all, Phillip Waren used around 650,000 matchsticks, to create his entire fleet.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 5 and 8.

In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.

Over at Sharp As a Marble, Robb has started a meme about what 5 guns you most lust after. I'm more a knife nut than a gun nut, so I don't have a lot of guns, myself. I don't even own a .22 rifle or a shotgun, so my list of five will work to fix that lack:

4. Remington Rolling Block rifle in .45-70. Most modern Americans are more familiar with the Sharps buffalo gun, but the Rolling Block was very nearly as popular, and was the rifle of choice for many of the world's armies in the pre-Mauser era.

5. Mauser HSc. In .32ACP, please. I just love the look of these WWII-era pistols.

“I think it's irresponsible, irreprehensible and of course incendiary if you keep on making these types of comments,” Councilman Michael Brown said during a portion of Monday evening's council meeting devoted to honoring a local group's efforts to mentor at-risk youth.

Wright, who did not attend the council meeting, said Tuesday that he's always insisted the use of weapons should be a last resort.

Brown, [who is black - - ed.] with about three dozen young members of the group Black Boys of Distinction gathered at the front of council chambers on Monday, said community leaders should be focused on spending time with at-risk youth in the community rather than encouraging residents to obtain weapons permits.

“I would say to continue to advocate for the instrumentalities of violence is contrary to a large group of people in this community,” Brown said during Monday's meeting. “The fact that you see me standing up here, I represent that segment of this community, the community that often times you will find yourself dealing with in a negative manner.”

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Demi's rep tells TMZ, "Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health. She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends."

Three people from Shallotte were arrested on charges of poaching Venus flytraps from a nature conservancy in Brunswick County as authorities found 200 of these rare plants pulled from the ground Monday.

The accused poachers were arrested Monday after staff from the N.C. Division of Forest Resources notified the Nature Conservancy’s Wilmington office about suspicious behavior in the Green Swamp Preserve, one of the last bastions of naturally-growing Venus flytraps worldwide.

They only grow in the coastal plain of NC and SC. Only place in the entire world.

I remember giving a book report on insectivorous plants back in 5th grade in Catholic school. Had to get up in front of the class to deliver it, and I was so enthusiastic about the subject that the teacher called the principal, Sister Trinita, to hear me give the lecture over again.

Studies have shown that most of the people that are licensed to carry concealed weapons are middle-aged, male, and white.

Studies have also shown that a disproportionate number of violent street crimes such as robberies, rapes and assaults are committed by young black men.

Similarly, the recent phenomenon of criminal "flash crowds" that engage in thefts from stores or beatings of victims of opportunity are also committed mainly by black young people.

Thus, as encounters between the white gun owners and the black lawbreakers increase in number, the concealed carry license will more and more come to be seen as a de facto n*gger-hunting license, at which point the NAACP, ACLU and the usual race baiters will step in and start legal proceedings to stop the disproportionate killing of young blacks by whites.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

If it comes down to Gingrich winning the GOP nomination, it'll be a lot like having to vote for Nixon in '68 or '72. You know it's your civic duty to do it, but damn, you just want to have yourself disinfected afterward.

According to an incident report, two armed men entered the restaurant and tried to rob it. A customer in the Waffle House, who is a concealed weapon permit holder, was also armed with a handgun and attempted to hold the suspects at gunpoint until law enforcement could arrive, deputies said.

Deputies said one of the robbery suspects pointed his gun at the customer, and the customer then shot the man, who died on the scene.

"The gentlemen said it scared him. He thought he was gonna die, so he shot the armed robbery suspect," said Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright.

The incident follows Wright's recent encouragement to citizens to get concealed weapons permits and to arm themselves against criminals.

"This guy defended his life and the life of others at the Waffle House by law and by the Constitution. We will not be charging this gentleman," Wright said.

So there ya go. We're often told by the Brady Bunch and other gun-haters that this scenario is so unlikely to happen that it doesn't justify people being allowed to carry firearms. Well, the reason it's so unlikely is because it was illegal for so long that people got out of the habit of self-reliance in those situations. As more and more CCW's are issued, the more often this scenario will repeat.

Double-tapped his sorry ass, too. One in the chest, one in the head. There'll be wailin' and cryin' at the A.M.E. Zion, I can tell you that.

...The worst oppression is condoned if it is committed in the name of socialism. Intolerance of opposing ideas is openly extolled; The tragedy of collectivist thought is that, while it starts out to make reason supreme, it ends by destroying reason. There is one aspect of the change in moral values brought about by the advance of collectivism which provides special food for thought. It is that the virtues which are held less and less in esteem in Britain and America are precisely those on which Anglo-Saxons justly prided themselves and in which they were generally recognized to excel. These virtues were independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, noninterference with one's neighbor and tolerance of the different, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority. Almost all the traditions and institutions which have molded the national character and the whole moral climate of England and America are those which the progress of collectivism and its centralistic tendencies are progressively destroying. - - From Why the Worst Get On Top, by F.A. Hayek.

I'm glad. My first military ID card featured them. I had to keep that hideous ID card with its image of a young, shaven-headed, moon-faced Bob peering nearsightedly through those black specs until I made E4.

Here's what the new boots will get:

Here's the funny paragraph I quoted in the post title:

The glasses, with a hipster, Buddy Holly vibe, will soon be the rage on recruits’ faces in Great Lakes, Ill., Parris Island, S.C., Fort Sill, Okla., Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, and elsewhere.

I just visited the Smith & Wesson website for the first time in a long time, and noticed that, in most of the photos of revolvers, the right side of the revolver is shown, with the barrel pointing to the right. I wonder if that's to avoid showing that stupid hole made by the nanny state internal lock mechanism? I seem to recall that Smith & Wesson used to always photograph their revolvers with the left side facing forward, so you could see the cylinder release and crane mechanism.

I guess that S&W must be unhappy with showing those internal locks, since they have been directly responsible for the boom in used S&W revolvers without them.

A top official at the Department of Justice has decided to assert his Fifth amendment right not to testify after being subpoenaed by House investigators in the probe into Fast and Furious, the program under which the Obama administration knowingly allowed thousands of guns to flow into Mexico, where they wound up in the hands of Mexican drug lords. At least two of the guns turned up at the murder scene of a U.S. border agent.

In connection with its probe, the House Oversight and Government Reform committee had subpoenaed Patrick Cunningham, the chief of the criminal division in the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office, which was involved with the program. But this morning committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., announced Cunningham had informed the committee of his intention to assert his Fifth amendment right.

Issa released the following statement:

“The assertion of the fifth amendment by a senior Justice official is a significant indictment of the Department’s integrity in Operation Fast and Furious. The former head of the ATF has previously told the committee that the Justice Department is managing its response to Operation Fast and Furious in a manner designed to protect its political appointees. This is the first time anyone has asserted their fifth amendment right in this investigation and heightens concerns that the Justice Department’s motivation for refusing to hand over subpoenaed materials is a desire to shield responsible officials from criminal charges and other embarrassment.

Until this fall, chef Molly Baz was working at an upscale Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. But she decided to give that up to go on a road trip.

Molly wanted to learn everything she could about variations in American barbecue, so she planned a tour of the country's most renowned barbecue regions and invited her father, photographer Doug Baz, along for the ride. The pair documented their travels on their blog, Adventures in BBQ.

Click the link to read the whole thing. I'll be looking at their blog as well, probably.

Jerry made Charlotte his home for many years. An unabashed knee-jerk liberal, he has been a columnist for the local weekly alternative newspaper, a radio talk host, and a concert promoter. He had little or no respect for any non-liberal viewpoint, and wasn't hesitant at all to tell you so. An old hippie and a true culture warrior, when he wasn't talking politics he could be interesting and even friendly. But damn, if you wanted an argument, all you had to to was bring up politics and Jerry was ready to argue.

Looks like there's a benefit concert being given in his name to raise money for his treatment. It's the same cancer that recently killed Christopher Hitchens.

Best wishes to Jerry in his struggle, hopefully he'll be free of pain and discomfort.

A Quick Bible Lesson...in the Bible, Ruth patiently waited for her mate Boaz. While waiting on MY Boaz, I won't settle for ANY of his relatives: Brokeaz, Poaz, Lyinaz, Cheatinaz, Dumbaz, Downlowaz, Cheapaz, Lockedupaz, Goodfornothinaz, Lazyaz or Marriedaz! And especially his third cousin Beatinyoaz. I will wait on my Boaz & make sure he respects Myaz!

(found on a white girl's profile, but reads like it originally came from a black girl's profile.)

Police say he walked into Lucky's Internet Cafe in Sharon on Monday night and began touching the walls and gambling machines, claiming he has MRSA - a serious staph infection that resists antibiotics.

Sharon police Chief Mike Menster says Parker then threatened to infect the cashier if he didn't give Parker money. The chief tells The Herald newspaper of Sharon, "It's our first case of robbery by threat of an infectious disease."

I have sad memories of MRSA, because it led to my mother's premature death last year of pneumonia.

Got my W2's when I got to work last night, and just finished e-filing with TurboTax for the third year. Didn't have to pay a cent to file, either federal or state. Getting a big refund for the first time in years, which is a good thing. I'm satisfied.

The hotel offers a bagged breakfast for those guests who check out and depart before the regular breakfast starts at 6:30 a.m. The bag includes a bottle of water, a piece of fruit, a breakfast bar, a piece of hard candy, and a paper napkin.

We have a regular guest, a long-haul trucker, who stays a couple of times a week. He likes to avail himself of the bagged breakfast option, since he typically leaves at 4:30 a.m. Most of the time I'm back in the office doing paperwork when he departs, and he grabs two of the bags. On two different occasions, though, I've been out at the front desk when he departed, and those two occasions he only grabbed one bag.

Interesting how behavior changes when you are, or think you are, being observed, huh?

Monday, January 16, 2012

Well, my plan to be out of town during the week of the Democrat National Convention here in Charlotte has been shot down by management, there was a memo on the bulletin board at work last night that the week of the convention was off limits to vacation and time off requests.

So, stuck in a hotel full of Democrats in September. Not my idea of a fun time.

A paper in the journal BMC Ecology, published on May 9, 2011, describes the parasitism by a fungus on the tropical carpenter ant in Thailand. It’s a macabre description of how the ant is invaded by the fungus, which takes over its body, commands it to perform actions to ensure the survival and growth of the fungus, then uses its dead body to grow a stalk with spores that are ejected into the surrounding area, ready to infect other passing ants.

Oh, damn, that's the stuff of nightmares, that is. And you can bet that Hollywood screenwriters are looking at that gruesome photo right now and firing up their Macs to write proposals based on it.

A 15-year-old-girl turned the tables on a pair of intruders early Saturday afternoon.

At 12:52 p.m., Texas City police received a call from the girl saying there was somebody trying to get into her house in the 7300 block of Meadowlark.

“She was home by herself in the bathroom and when she called — she was hysterical,” police Capt. Brian Goetschius said.

The teen said she heard the front door jiggle and when she looked out, she saw two men standing there, Goetschius said.

The girl called her father, her aunt and the police. Then she got her father’s handgun and went outside, Goetschius said.

One of the men had gone into the garage and was attempting to steal a pickup. The girl did not know where the other one was.

She confronted the man in the garage and he ran away, heading east on Meadowlark. He was followed by his accomplice, who had been inside, searching the house, Goetschius said.

“It had been ransacked,” the captain said.

Click to read the rest. If the Brady Campaign To End Handgun Ownership Violence had its way, the little girl would probably have been discovered by the two burglars, and quite possibly raped or even killed. And that would have been fine with the Bradies, as long as the victim wasn't allowed to own one of those evil guns. It's amazing, too, that it wasn't taken away from her and used against her, that's what the anti-gun people always say happens. It's also amazing she's still alive with a gun in the house at all, because to listen to the hoplophobes a gun in the house almost invariably leads to a "tragic accident."

Friday, January 13, 2012

“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

It should be pointed out that West was a Lt. Colonel in the US Army and served in Iraq, so his viewpoint is more informed that of most members of Congress.

If it's true that US Marines urinated on the bodies of dead Taliban, then it's regrettable and the offenders should probably be punished, but in point of fact it's not the first time Americans have pissed on the body of a dead enemy:

Meanwhile, Pattie won numerous people over to the Loyal cause. On 24 September, 500 men came in. He and his troops left Gilbert Town on 27 September. He learned of the large Rebel advance from deserters from Sevier. Pattie wrote to Cornwallis, then in Charlotte, and to Cruger at Ninety-Six for support. Cruger could spare none, and advised retreat. On 1 October, at Denard's Ford, Pattie wrote to Cornwallis that more Rebels were mustering. He reported that two old men - survivors of a party of 4 - had just been brought into camp "most barbarously maimd by a Party of Clevelands Men". The incident angered him: he used it in an impassioned proclamation that day to rally the Loyalists:

Gentlemen: Unless you wish to be eat up by an inundation of barbarians, who have begun by murdering an unarmed son before the aged father, and afterwards lopped off his arms, and who by their shocking cruelties and irregularities, give the best proof of their cowardice and want of discipline; I say, if you wish to be pinioned, robbed, and murdered, and see your wives and daughters, in four days, abused by the dregs of mankind - in short, if you wish or deserve to live, and bear the name of men, grasp your arms in a moment and run to camp. The Back Water men have crossed the mountains; McDowell, Hampton, Shelby and Cleveland are at their head, so that you know what you have to depend upon. If you choose to be pissed upon forever and ever by a set of mongrels, say so at once and let your women turn their backs upon you, and look out for real men to protect them.

(Keep those words in mind)

Husbands was killed outright, Plummer badly wounded. Pattie himself was a conspicuous target, with his sword in his left hand, his bent-up right arm, and a checked duster-shirt protecting his uniform. A massive volley blasted him from the saddle. About a dozen balls shattered his body. His foot caught in the stirrup of his horse as he fell, and he was dragged along the ground. He died within minutes, in the arms of his friends. Jubilant Rebels stripped and urinated on his corpse, before his orderly Elias Powell and other companions were allowed to bathe and shroud him in a raw beef-hide.(¡Grande hazanas - Con muertos! to quote Goya in a later war...) He was buried in a shallow grave, beside poor Sal, from whose corpse a Rebel took a necklace of glass beads. Poll was taken prisoner, but released at Moravian Towns and returned to the army in Charlotte, where she apparently found a new protector."Don't kill any more! It's murder!" the Rebels' nominal commander, William Campbell protested as, with cries of "Give them Buford's play!" and "Tarleton's Quarter!", they ignored the Loyalists' white flags. Only with great difficulty did he prevent a wholesale massacre. Rebel casualties were 28 dead and 64 wounded, but 157 Loyalists were killed, and 163 so seriously hurt that they were abandoned on the mountain. Some were rescued by local Loyalists, and nursed back to health. Others were less fortunate: for weeks afterwards, turkey-buzzards, wolves and hogs fattened themselves on human carrion.

That was the Battle of King's Mountain, a battle of the American Revolution, fought on the border of North and South Carolina in 1780. It was the turning point of the Revolution in the southern colonies, and the first of the victories that led to Yorktown. "Pattie" is Major Patrick Ferguson, a Scotsman who was an officer in the British Army, who was leading American troops loyal to the Crown. On the other side were the "Overmountain Men," Indian fighters and frontiersman from what is now Tennessee.

While there are many accounts of the King's Mountain battle, not all of them mention that Ferguson's body was urinated on, and fewer still mention the letter quoted above that so provoked the Overmountain Men to treat Ferguson's corpse in such a manner. But the war in the South was fought mainly between Americans, a savage war of hatred that pitted neighbor against neighbor and in which atrocities were committed by both sides.

And that's the reality of war. Down through the centuries we've tried to clean it up and stop atrocities, with various treaties (Geneva Convention, etc.) to provide guidelines, but the sorry fact is that, since the end of WWII, none of the enemies that the US has met in battle has played by those rules, and American military men and women have been subject to torture and other atrocities. So it is in Afghanistan. Every warrior fighting against the Taliban knows that to be captured alive by them leads only to torture and beheading, so fighting to death is the common pattern. And if, after a battle, one or two of them breaks the rules and treats a Taliban like the Overmountain Men treated Ferguson, then if they're caught they have to be punished so as to preserve good order and discipline in the ranks; but don't pretend that they didn't have sufficient provocation for what they did, and try to show a little empathy for what you expect of them: they're humans just like you and me, not soulless battle robots.

Over at Borepatch's place (click the above link), Ted has challenged anti-gun internet troll "Baldr Odinson" (no links to nithings here) to a duel, or, as the ancient Norse called it, Holmgang. If Baldr refuses the challenge, he is declared nithing (man without honor) and also possibly ergi (butt-boy fairy). It should be interesting. I've never seen Ted get up on his hind legs like this.

I thought this, but didn't say it, when a guest approached the desk, helped himself to one of the complimentary apples, and said, "What's the matter with these apples? They're sort of funny-looking." Then, to prove that funny-looking apples didn't scare him, he took a huge bite out of it.

I wish I was a computer programmer so that I could develop a "Dr. McCoy Profession Generator" that, when you click a button, would generate a random exclamation based on "I'm a ________, not a _______.

Being a viper it's venomous, although the article doesn't say exactly how venomous. Being a new species the research into venom toxicity might not have been done yet. As the article states, though, bites from similar species aren't usually fatal.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has urged a federal court to side with a Howard County man in a lawsuit over his cellphone being seized by Baltimore police at the Preakness Stakes after he filmed officers making an arrest.

The federal attorneys say the lawsuit “presents constitutional questions of great moment in this digital age.” They asked U.S. District Judge Benson Everett Legg to rule that citizens have a right to record police officers and that officers who seize and destroy recordings without a warrant or due process are violating the Fourth and 14th Amendments.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which is representing the plaintiff, Christopher Sharp, said it believes this is the first time the Department of Justice has weighed in on the topic of recording police.

Holder must really be trying to make up for Fast & Furious. This will piss off cops and police departments all over the country.

A city police officer at the center of a controversial traffic stop involving a man with a permit to carry a concealed handgun has been fired.

Bill Adams, president of the Canton Police Patrolmen’s Association, the union that represents Patrolman Daniel Harless, confirmed that city Safety Director Thomas Ream ruled that Harless is no longer a member of the city’s police force.

Ream issued a three-page ruling dated Tuesday.

“It is quite clear that (Harless’) actions represented a pattern of behavior where inappropriate verbal abuse and threats of death or great bodily harm of the various complainants occurred,” Ream wrote.

“This escalating pattern of potentially dangerous behavior cannot be justified or excused and clearly illustrates the seriousness of the departmental infractions.”

Officer 'Roid Rage is appealing the decision, and his comrades on the Canton police force are still supporting him. He's now trying to claim that he's had PTSD for 8 years and that somehow, everyone failed to notice it:

Harless was placed on medical leave and other officers donated their sick days to him when his paid sick-leave time ran out.

The union had asked for an extension for the disciplinary hearing due to Harless being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“Obviously, it’s an unfortunate set of circumstances that transpired,” Adams said. “We feel that due to the fact that (Harless) has PTSD, that nobody realized it for eight-plus years, for it to come to light the way it did ... this is not a way we wanted this to play out. PTSD is obviously a disease.”

Adams said that the incident that sparked the disease occurred in 2003 when a suspect nearly bit off Harless’ finger while trying to get the officer’s gun.

“It affects people in different ways. Unfortunately, (Harless) had PTSD, and it wasn’t realized for eight years. Unfortunately, he was fired, and we will address that situation at a later time.”

And yes, I know the arguments about it being the owner's fault and not the dog's. It's just a matter of percentages and playing the odds, just like in Vegas. I might be savaged by a vicious cocker spaniel, but it ain't damned likely. And I'll cross the street if I'm approached by a group of young black men far more readily than I will for a group of young white women.

Seems obvious that Ron Paul is benefiting from those voters who are too disgusted to vote for Romney. This might make for some interesting results down the pike; it is within the realm of possibility (but not probability, at this point) that Paul could either win the nomination outright or go into the convention with so many delegates that it would result in a brokered convention. Now that is not the most likely outcome, because too many people just don't believe that Ron Paul could possibly win the nomination. That sort of pessimism tends to be self-fulfilling.

Paul could go into the convention with enough delegates to demand concessions from Romney, however; maybe Treasury Secretary, where he would preside over the dismantling of the Fed. Or he might demand a role in the crafting of the Republican platform. He's too old for VP, really, Romney needs to pick a young man or woman for that position so as to assure an heir down the pike.

Romney, when it comes down to it, is a decent man, apparently has no skeletons in his closet, and is competent enough to make an effective president. The big point against him is the towering ambition that makes him want the job so much that he's willing to pander to nearly anyone in his quest to achieve it. If he had genuine conservative principles and subordinated his ambition to them, we'd be looking at another Reagan, or a man even better than Reagan, but that ambition is making him behave like a whore who worries that she won't have made enough money to satisfy her pimp. Ugly to see.

FAYETTEVILLE -- A 33-year-old man is free on bond after being accused of having sex with a neighbor's dog.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office says Ray Lynn Mitcham Jr., who lives in the town of Linden, was arrested Monday and charged with a felony crime against nature. Authorities say the alleged incident happened Jan. 2.

The sheriff's office says the complaint was filed by the dog's owner, who is also Mitcham's landlord. She told deputies she went to Mitcham's resident early on the morning of Jan. 2 to speak with him. When she opened the door of his mobile home, she said, she witnessed the act.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Over at Ann Althouse's blog, in a discussion of concealed carry permits for handguns in Madison and Wisconsin, we get down to a question of which came first:

Fanlund quotes Chief Wray[Noble Wray, Madison Police Chief]:

"What I can't understand is how come we have not evolved beyond the point that the best way to protect ourselves is a gun? How come we cannot come up with something that is less destructive and less permanent."

And Althouse supplies the obvious reply:

I do have a question for you though: Why haven't the police — the police you lead — eliminated crime in our neighborhoods? Why are there still rapes and robberies? Why are there still gangs? Why haven't your police evolved to the point where you have solved these problems for us? Because, I know that I, personally, would love to depend on government for all my personal protection. How come you cannot come up with something?

Exactly. It is the failure of law enforcement and the justice system to segregate the violent criminals from the rest of us that drives the demand for concealed-carry permits. People who feel safe from being victimized by criminals usually have little desire to jump through the hoops necessary to carry a concealed firearm legally.

It's one of the US's first coins, and this particular penny had a design that was rejected, so it was never circulated.

Pic:

Apparently the chain design on the reverse side, of 13 links meant to indicate the unity of the United States, was instead rejected because of the connotation of chains with slavery, a touchy subject in the country at a time when the new government had struggled over slavery in the US Constitution.

Lady Liberty on the Obverse (heads) side of the penny is unappealingly masculine, IMO.

Saturday, January 07, 2012

I first mentioned this subject back in 2009 when the whisky was first discovered in the 1907 hut built by Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition; a couple of cases of the whisky had been left behind when the expedition failed to achieve its goal, and the whisky remained there for most of a century.

Now it has been re-created using the latest technology, and is available for sale (a quick search indicates that the stuff is priced in the $125-150 range).

Friday, January 06, 2012

This time, one was looking back: A big, baldish critter with stubby wings and a long, bowed neck.

"That's got to be the biggest turkey I've ever seen," Bain said Tuesday, laughing as she recalled her avian encounter. "That's what I was thinking at the moment. I promise, it was as tall as a pony, just peeking into the window at me."

After a few minutes -- and a couple of calls to neighbors along Elliot Bridge Road -- Bain realized her peeping tom wasn't a turkey at all.

She was one of several folks in central Harnett County to be visited this week by an emu: a large, flightless bird common in Australia that seems to have taken a shine to the rolling hills between Bunnlevel and Flat Branch.

The cold snap plaguing large areas of the Tar Heel state is causing problems for sea turtles, who have begun washing up on shore in large numbers after being stunned by quickly-dropping water temperatures.

As of Thursday morning, 19 marine reptiles – three loggerheads, 16 green turtles – had been found on regional beaches, mostly in the Cape Lookout area.

Twelve of the green turtles died Wednesday night, but Jean Beasley, director of the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Topsail Beach, said the rest of the group was showing some signs of life.

“I think within 72 hours we should have a pretty good idea,” Beasley said late Wednesday. “It's going to take us a while to warm these turtles up.”

I wonder what it's going to take to get the two divided sides of the US to figure out a compromise that allows the country to run more efficiently. I think we can describe the divide as between the statists/Liberals/Progressives/Democrats/Hippies on one side, and the individualists/Conservatives/Republicans/Rednecks on the other side, both sides basically despise each other and feel that the other side's ceasing to exist would somehow lead to all of the US's problems being resolved.

Currently when a new President is inaugurated he spends his first week reversing the Executive Orders issued by the previous President. Barack Obama certainly did this, and Bush did it before him, and all the way back to Reagan's time, as far as I can recall, especially with regards to abortion. So I guess if we get a new President in November we'll go through the whole process again?

Are we just going to have Presidents that rule either the Hippies or the Rednecks, and pander to their respective group, and do their level best to work against the interests of the other group? How can we continue that way?

SAN DIEGO — A Navy SEAL was hospitalized in very serious condition Thursday after he apparently accidentally shot himself in the head, officials said.

The shooting happened about 2 a.m. in a house in Pacific Beach, a popular oceanfront community north of the city. According to 10News, the local ABC affiliate that first reported the incident, San Diego police said the unidentified man was handling the gun and pointed it at his head to show his girlfriend it wasn’t loaded, but pulled the trigger and shot himself. Both had been drinking at a local bar earlier that night, 10News reported.

Jeff Cooper's rules of safe gun handling can be seen on my blog sidebar, but I'll mention them here for people who aren't familiar with them:

Rule 1: All guns are always loaded. Even if it's not, treat it as if it is.

Rule 2: Never allow the muzzle to cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)

Rule 3: Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.

Rule 4: Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

Reading further into the article I see that this young man was a baby SEAL, just passed BUD/S, the SEAL qualification course, but still...he's supposed to be a professional, should know better than this.

What a tragic lapse in judgment. Best wishes for his full and complete recovery.

I've wanted to see a reduction in the size of the US military for quite a while now, in combination with a withdrawal from overseas adventurism and perpetual warfare, which is not the US pattern of behavior until recently. We could actually cut Defense by 50% and still have the world's largest and most powerful military, not even taking into account our nuclear arsenal.

Having said that, it seems clear that President Obama and Co. want to use the money saved from defense cuts to boost entitlement and infrastructure spending, but I think that the savings, or at least a large portion of them, should go to reducing the deficit and the national debt.

This one is a bit of a hybrid, being neither a genuine Schrade from before that US company went bankrupt, nor is it fully a Chinese-made knife made under the Schrade name, as current Schrade production is; it's a combo of a blade made by the US factory in Ellenville, NY, before the bankruptcy, and finished "offshore" (presumably by the Chinese) under contract from Smoky Mountain Knife Works, who bought up a lot of Schrade's old blade stock.

This Sharpfinger isn't really an Old Timer, because Schrade knives made under that name usually (but not always) had knives made of 1095 carbon steel, and this one is made of Schrade+ steel, which is stainless and from the 440 family of steels. The contractors who did the handle (and, presumably, the sheath) did a pretty good, but not a perfect job. The black-colored handle scales are made of Dymondwood, which is a material made up of thin layers of wood pressed together with resin; waterproof, stable, and long-lasting. These were fastened to the blade with brass pins, and the person who fastened them on didn't do a good enough job, as they rattled loosely on the blade until I took a hammer to them myself. The sheath is well constructed of quality leather, and can't be distinguished from old Schrade product. The blade itself, the only part made in the US factory, was reasonably sharp, and would shave a few hairs from my arm. After I honed it lightly on a crock stick, it became fearfully sharp, and the hairs jumped off my arm in fright rather than wait to be cut. ;-)

As I said above, Smoky Mountain Knife Works is selling them, at a fair price of $19.95. They had them in brown handles as well, but those already seem to be sold out, all that is left is the black. They also have (or had) some of the Schrade Loveless-pattern hunting knives.

It was in 2006 when Ventura and the SEALs happened to be in the same bar, for very different reasons. The SEALs were holding a wake to honor a lost member of their team. Jesse was in town to speak to some new graduates of the SEAL program. During his military career from 1969-75, Ventura was a member of the Navy’s elite Underwater Demolition Team or UDT (the UDT was the precursor to the SEALs) and Jesse is a SEAL reservist. You might expect that sharing the history of membership in an elite military unit would garner a lifetime of mutual respect. Not so with Ventura.

As stated above, the SEALs were in the bar to mourn the loss of team member. They had gathered with the family of Medal of Honor recipient Mike Mansoor when Ventura made it known to many that he did not agree with the war. Kyle claims that he approached the former governor, and asked him to keep it down, informing Jesse that the family of the deceased was also with them.

That’s when Ventura unleashed more of his insensitive comments and Kyle reportedly countered with a one-punch knockdown.

Paul’s showing tonight wasn’t about racist newsletters, 9/11 trutherism, or take your pick of nutty Alex Jones conspiracy theories. Paul won strong support from young people, independents, and traditional conservatives tonight. Some like him on the drug war. Some like him for attempting to hold the Federal Reserve more transparent and accountable. (Paul would abolish it entirely, of course. But he’s shooting for transparent and accountable for now.) All of the aforementioned groups seem to like him on cleaving the debt and bringing U.S. troops home from overseas. The GOP establishment wants none of him. But now they have to deal with him, and they have to deal with his arguments. They can’t just assume perpetual war as a given. There’s a small but emerging faction in the party that finds the idea offensive. That’s largely because of Ron Paul. And that’s a healthy thing.

Paul has also pushed all of these issues beyond the GOP and into the national discussion. He deserves a ton of credit for that, too. I still prefer Gary Johnson to Paul, for reasons I’ll explain in the next few days. But you could make a strong argument that tonight’s results represent the most significant contribution a libertarian has ever made to presidential politics. Ron Paul is the man who made it. And both the country and libertarianism are better for it.

It's often the case that, when experts are subjected to such testing, that the results are less than impressive, and that most of the "expertise" results from luck or superior knowledge only, not superior skill, whether it is in playing a musical instrument, tasting wine, or what have you.

The MUSC study, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and published in October, found copper surfaces in intensive-care hospital rooms had 97 percent less bacteria than noncopper surfaces, resulting in fewer hospital-acquired infections. The copper was found to kill several types of bacteria, including a strain of E. coli and MRSA, a staph bacteria that can lead to fatal infections.

Although I've killed them myself, as a younker in Florida. And I'd like a belt of Diamondback hide, if I could find a snake that long. *grins*

Leave them alone, if at all possible. I won't condemn someone for killing one around a house, but if you see one in the woods, stop and admire it, then let it go about its business, which is rodent control.

Speaking of Browning, what about him? As I've said before: it's pretty hard to get excited about a guy who wasn't talented enough to build a revolver! He's lucky that Colt (and Winchester and FN and Ithaca and everyone else who got suckered into buying his latest back-of-the-napkin doodle) had real engineers to clean up his designs and actually make them work. Unfortunately, like poor Dieudonné Joseph Saive (Browning wasn't the only gun guy with a biblical middle name, which makes me wonder if there's a union somewhere who insists on it in their contract), they never got the credit they deserved for making the hack look good in public.

Click the link to read the rest of it. I'm reminded of a favorite Monty Python clip:

I promised you something on cheese mites today. I hope I don’t put you off cheese. Or honey. Or flour. Or any other staple foodstuffs. A little knowledge of mites and other micro-fauna makes you realise that veganism and vegetarianism can only ever be relative.

...because I did manage to lose weight during that year; don't know exactly how much, because I don't have a scale here at the house, but my jeans and shirts are definitely too big for me now. Portion control was responsible for much of it, and switch in diet to baked chicken thighs on the weekdays, seasoned with Tony Chachére's Creole Seasoning (or Old Bay, or Zatarain's, or Blackened). The diet doesn't apply on weekends.

About Me

What I'm Reading

JL Curtis: Gray Man - - Partners

Hitchens

The MSM

A newsroom comprised entirely of leftists/liberals is no more capable of ideological objectivity than an all-white newsroom would be of racial objectivity, or an all-male newsroom of gender objectivity.

FlickR

Captain Louis Renault

"Round Up the Usual Suspects."

The Drawn Cutlass Philosophy

Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect, and don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security, it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.

Ambrose Bierce

The Foe

When I am free to walk the streets of Mecca or Medina as the agnostic I am and receive nothing but curious glances, I will believe Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.

Sign On. You Know You Want To.

A Few Words From Some Founding Fathers

Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety

All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.

Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)

Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.

Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.

Bob's Addendum To Cooper's Rules

A Gun is not a Toy. Don't Play With It.

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies

Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies: The best hush puppies are oblong shaped, rather like dog turds. The worst ones are spherical, like balls. The spherical ones are usually made from the recipe on a pre-packaged box of hush puppy mix.

Restaurant Ratings

My restaurant ratings, mostly intended for BBQ restaurants, will be on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Unlike most reviewers, I don't intend to play games with the rating scale by introducing fractions such as "2 and 1/2" or "4 and 3/4," I've always considered that stupid and a signal that the reviewer is trying to avoid making an honest 1-5 judgment.

Here is the breakdown of the ratings:

1 out of 5: waste of time, crap, unable to finish eating; apathy by staff/ownership

2 out of 5: edible, but no effort to impress; staff/management going through motions; desultory.

3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management

On Self-Reliance

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."